I’m heartened by a recent AP article that talked about VA hospitals (specifically Walter Reed Medical Center) using the video game system Wii as a form of therapy. Rehab patients, for example, spend time playing Wii tennis and it improves their upper body strength (and probably their relationship with any teenager kids they have as well).

We lecture our patients about exercise in good faith; we’ve sat through that terrible lecture on the “dangers of immobility” and know it’s not pretty; the human body is meant to move. At the same time, we often catch the “no pain no gain” sentiment of the greater culture (or at least the culture that is trying to sell gym memberships) and present what could be a pleasure as something more like punishment. If you are working with a patient who needs to add more physical activity to their life, you might have more success brainstorming with them about fun ways to move around more. It might be walking with a grandson just learning to ride his two wheeler, or it might be going dance three times a week. And if you have, for example, a retired army colonel who thinks if he can’t do pushups or go running he’s not exercising, you can tell him that even at Walter Reed they are remembering that getting in shape can be fun!